Rocky drills and long emails: Inside Green's Lankan prep

Cameron Green is too young to understand the comparison Beau Casson makes between their unorthodox pre-Sri Lanka tour net sessions and iconic training regimes from the Rocky films.

And you might also presume Green is too young to bother with long-form written correspondence given his generation has supposedly been conditioned to only want instant gratification.

But Casson, the former Test spinner who peppered the 23-year-old with balls spinning and bouncing off rubber mats in the lead-in to this tour, begs to differ.

"For him, digesting information, stewing over it and then actually putting it into words is his best way of going, 'This is what I want to be doing moving forward'," the former Test spinner told cricket.com.au.

Accordingly, Casson, now an assistant coach with Western Australia and Green's most trusted batting advisor, was not surprised when he awoke one January morning to a lengthy email from the allrounder.

Coming off the high of an Ashes series win, Green couldn't sleep in the middle of a two-week home quarantine stint that was, at the time, still mandatory for interstate arrivals into WA.

"It was about midnight and I had all these thoughts about batting," Green told cricket.com.au in Galle before the first Test against Sri Lanka.

"So I sent him this massive email, basically saying sorry for the late email but these are the thoughts that I've had.

"He wrote back with an equally long email. We just love chatting about batting and ways to improve."

The Ashes had only added to Green's emerging reputation as one of the most promising cricketers the country has produced in recent times.

Yet the allrounder, whose devotion to his craft he admits has become all-consuming at times, had been kept awake by thoughts on his technical set-up at the crease and how to best set himself in his stance.

"It's been a long, long email trail," laughs Casson. "He probably gets over my long (replies)."

But the coach also sees it as a sign of a rare maturity.

"It's him (showing he's) wise beyond his years in terms of understanding that's the way he ticks, because sometimes we can, as coaches, information vomit," said Casson.

"It's enjoyable to see how much time he puts into it and brilliant for a man of his age.

"His ability to identify that player X plays this way, can I use that in my game? Yes or no? And if I can, how can I make it just a little bit more specific to my game?"

That ability was again underlined by his unconventional preparation for Sri Lanka.

Not dissimilar to the backyard set-up Marnus Labuschagne rigged up ahead of the Pakistan tour earlier this year, Green practiced against spin at an indoor sports centre in suburban Perth with rubber mats bought from Bunnings and laid out over the synthetic surface.

"We tried to make the ball misbehave and put a little bit of doubt (in his mind), then see how you actually work through and problem solve those situations," said Casson.

Casson likens it to the scenes in Rocky IV when the titular character played by Sylvester Stallone is forced to improvise his training methods with the farm tools at hand when isolated in a remote cabin.

Green wasn't snowed in and having his every move monitored by the KGB ahead of his big battle in enemy territory, but the primitive training prepared him well.

"He wore the odd one in the shoulder, the odd one in the chest and because it misbehaves so much it then tests his ability to get back on task the next ball and stay true to your plan," said Casson.

"If you're not quite nailing your footwork patterns, it just puts the spotlight on the areas you need to improve.

"And that was something that he enjoyed – I know all the coaches Adam (Voges), Swamp (Geoff Marsh) all enjoyed actually throwing balls in there because it made it a bit more interesting – we were in the game for once!

"Hopefully there was some method in our madness."

That madness indeed proved effective, as Green delivered a player-of-the-match worthy innings of 77 on a Galle minefield, not dissimilar to the volatility of that indoor net back in Perth.

He's been told multiple times it was an innings worthy of a hundred but Green, who has made no secret of his desperate craving for a maiden Test ton, smiled on Tuesday when he flatly insisted "that's not how it works – it's still 77."

Yet even skipper Pat Cummins has conceded his surprise over how quickly he has adapted to the different conditions presented in international cricket.

In Galle, Green's desire to score from the first ball he faced was noticeable; part of the "proactive" and "brave" mantras the Aussies have based their tour strategy on.

His ability to score has also been the product of much hard work, with Casson in particular.

"Cass and I had been thinking about it for a while," Green said this week. "It took a while to get a good idea on how (I wanted) to face spin.

"I used to have a bat tap (in his stance) to face spin and I felt like I was a bit rushed. So I've gone away from the bat tap and it feels like I've got a bit more time to play my shots.

"It's something I've worked with Cass for a while and it's nice for it to pay off."

Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Test squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Pathum Nissanka, Oshada Fernando, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kamindu Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Dinesh Chandimal, Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne, Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka, Praveen Jayawickrama, Jeffrey Vandersay, Maheesh Theekshana, Lakshitha Manasinghe, Dunith Wellalage, Prabath Jayasuriya

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner. Standby players: Matthew Kuhnemann, Todd Murphy

June 29 - July 3: Australia won by 10 wickets

July 8-12: Second Test, Galle, 2.30pm AEST

Sri Lanka v Australia Test matches will be screened live on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports